Review: Archie: The Married Life Book 1

Title: Archie: The Married Life Book 1
Author: Michael E. Uslan, Paul Kupperberg, Norm Breyfogle
Genre: Comics, Graphic Novel
Publisher: Archie Comics
Source: Library
Release Date: October 4, 2011
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Find out what happens after the “I do”s!

Delve deeper into all of the emotion and drama surrounding two different choices: Archie’s decision to marry sultry debutante Veronica Lodge versus his decision to marry sexy girl next door Betty Cooper. How do his choices affect not only Riverdale, but the world and everyone around him? Is it a match made in heaven? Will he find that he can’t put a price on love?

Collects the first six chapters of both Archie Marries Veronica and Archie Marries Betty, the most critically acclaimed storyline Archie has ever published, as originally seen in the newsstand magazine Life with Archie.

Review:

I loved Archie comics as a kid, and I still love them today.

This book about an adult Archie reminded me of the show, Riverdale, which I’m obsessed with. It had some of the same subplots, such as Mr. Lodge buying lots of property in Riverdale and an important mayoral race. There were mature themes explored in this story, such as marriage, death, and losing jobs. The comics I read as a kid were more optimistic and innocent. The worst thing that happened was that Cheryl Blossom would come to town and steal Archie from Betty and Veronica. This book shows more of what happens in real life, which was kind of depressing most of the time.

One thing that bothered me about this book was the way that it switched between Archie and Veronica’s married life and Archie and Betty’s married life. Both lives were similar but slightly different. For example in both stories, Jughead was trying to buy Pop’s diner but was struggling to find the money. However, only in one of them does Moose run for mayor. I kept getting confused between chapters because it would alternate between them both. One thing I liked was that there were some characters and events that appeared in both of Archie’s stories, so those things were meant to be. It would have been easier to read if the book was divided into two different sections, one about Betty and one about Veronica, rather than having alternating chapters.

Despite the confusion, I enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to reading the next one.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book. View all posts by jilljemmett